563 lines
67 KiB
HTML
563 lines
67 KiB
HTML
|
<!DOCTYPE html>
|
|||
|
|
<html lang="" xml:lang="" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head>
|
|||
|
|
<meta charset="utf-8"/>
|
|||
|
|
<meta content="pandoc" name="generator"/>
|
|||
|
|
<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
|
|||
|
|
<title>12 June, 2021</title>
|
|||
|
|
<style type="text/css">
|
|||
|
|
code{white-space: pre-wrap;}
|
|||
|
|
span.smallcaps{font-variant: small-caps;}
|
|||
|
|
span.underline{text-decoration: underline;}
|
|||
|
|
div.column{display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; width: 50%;}
|
|||
|
|
</style>
|
|||
|
|
<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
|
|||
|
|
<body>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Netanyahu’s Likely Departure Is Not Easing the Fears of Palestinians</strong> - Attacks by settlers in the West Bank have been on the rise for years—and a new Israeli government is no guarantee of change. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/netanyahus-likely-departure-is-not-easing-the-fears-of-palestinians">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Is There Any Time Left for Maya Wiley?</strong> - The former City Hall lawyer, who has received the endorsement of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, considers herself the last progressive standing in New York’s mayoral race. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/is-there-any-time-left-for-maya-wiley">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Importance of Teaching Dred Scott</strong> - By limiting discussion of the infamous Supreme Court decision, law-school professors risk minimizing the role of racism in American history. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-importance-of-teaching-dred-scott">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Heidi Larson, Vaccine Anthropologist</strong> - The world’s richest countries are now its most vaccine-hesitant. Can we learn to trust our shots before the next pandemic? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/science/annals-of-medicine/heidi-larson-vaccine-anthropologist">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Other Side of the River, Revisited</strong> - Police in a Michigan resort town have reopened the case of a Black teen’s mysterious death. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-other-side-of-the-river-revisited">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>One possible cause of the 2020 murder increase: More guns</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="A person at a protest holds up a sign that reads, “End gun violence.”" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/vXW_Mtw0j5kWeMc1KcjT5jOfUls=/0x0:5973x4480/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69443671/1167624313.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
People participate in a demonstration and news conference against illegal guns in front of the Jacob Javits Federal Building on August 12, 2019, in New York. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Police are pointing fingers at protests to explain the murder increase. The data suggests the story is more complicated.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UWMd4H">
|
|||
|
|
The year 2020 saw the <a href="https://www.vox.com/22344713/murder-violent-crime-spike-surge-2020-covid-19-coronavirus">largest recorded increase in homicides</a> in United States history — an increase likely propelled by a complex mix of factors, from more guns to stresses of the pandemic to <a href="https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/seattle/spd-warns-of-staffing-crisis-after-66-more-officers-leave/281-040a65b1-3165-4f24-8652-a5d10860aac7">fewer police officers on the streets</a> to a crisis in relations between police and citizens.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y6nFJc">
|
|||
|
|
But one persistent theory is that a change in policing last summer primarily drove increased gun violence. This is an especially popular explanation among law enforcement figures. Former Baltimore Police Department Deputy Commissioner Jason Johnson recently <a href="https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/7137565002?__twitter_impression=true">argued</a> that the real driver of last year’s murder rise was a severe decline in police activity, especially after protests erupted last summer in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4CammA">
|
|||
|
|
St. Louis Police Commissioner John Hayden suggested that the police resources devoted to protests prevented officers from engaging in neighborhood policing. Former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said police were “stretched to the limit” by the protests and coronavirus restrictions. Summarizing widespread reductions in stops and arrests, Johnson wrote that “when the Thin Blue Line retreats, violence charges in.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EtdXeP">
|
|||
|
|
But data from numerous large American cities complicates that narrative, suggesting that the change in policing alone is not sufficient to explain last year’s large increase in murder and that a growing number of firearms on the streets likely played a significant role.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="voAPHY">
|
|||
|
|
It’s true that police activity, as measured by stops and arrests, declined significantly in 2020. Still, despite that drop, and weeks before Floyd’s murder and the ensuing protests, police began finding firearms more often than in previous years.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tq32Mx">
|
|||
|
|
This pattern does not support the idea that overwhelmed police forces weren’t able to take guns off the streets, leading to a surge in violence. Instead, the spike in firearms as a percentage of stops and arrests provides evidence that there were simply more guns on the streets throughout 2020 than in the past, which may have intensified other sources of violence and contributed to the historic rise in murders.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kUzFFG">
|
|||
|
|
While there is no standardized, national open data on stops, information on police activity in 10 cities that we compiled points toward the same pattern.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TSZCTm">
|
|||
|
|
First, stops and arrests fell rapidly in each city in March and April 2020, driven by pandemic restrictions on police contact or due to fewer people being outside (and thus available to be stopped by police).
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="Chart: Policy activity dropped in March 2020" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/wPiAm5XmUE3J7X7XT3GQYfb2yYM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22653589/goB5z_police_activity_dropped_in_march_2020.png"/> <cite>Data analysis by Jeff Asher and Rob Arthur</cite>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sj8X53">
|
|||
|
|
If less policing alone led to increased violence, we would have expected to see an uptick in March and April after this clear change. But there was no observable increase in gun violence in these cities at that time.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pvJGs2">
|
|||
|
|
Police activity dropped again after Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd in late May 2020, this time with an accompanying surge in shootings in many cities. Cities generally saw stops and arrests increase over the last few months of 2020 — though still below pre-pandemic levels — with the elevated level of violence remaining.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="537Yxm">
|
|||
|
|
While the volume of stops and arrests fell dramatically in March and April in all 10 cities, police in every city were more likely to find a firearm when they made stops and arrests. In Chicago, for example, police stops decreased nearly 70 percent between January and May 2020, but officers actually found 83 percent <em>more</em> firearms in May than in January.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PsPd9x">
|
|||
|
|
Jens Ludwig, director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab, analyzed stops in Chicago and <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-opinion-data-points-gun-carrying-crime-lab-20210403-5iz6blr6urhlji7hxwyjwrnhc4-htmlstory.html">concluded</a> that “unless the police have become dramatically better at figuring out who is illegally carrying a gun (and so have become better at figuring out who to stop), the implication is that lots more people are carrying guns illegally in Chicago.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7z76VV">
|
|||
|
|
The same pattern was seen across numerous cities with available data. There were 34 percent fewer arrest charges in Los Angeles in April and May 2020 compared to April and May 2019, but charges for weapons possession were up. The problem was not confined just to big cities, either. In Tucson, Arizona, for example, there were 39 percent fewer arrests in April and May 2020 compared to a year earlier but 29 percent more arrests for weapons or firearms possession.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="Chart: The share of arrests finding weapons jumped as the pandemic began" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/CcFfoD7WJr91YYsG3_OzVCAl65k=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22653702/2wz5m_the_share_of_arrests_finding_weapons_jumped_as_the_pandemic_began.png"/> <cite>Data analysis by Jeff Asher and Rob Arthur</cite>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lM0qMq">
|
|||
|
|
The share of stops or arrests that resulted in a firearm being found increased in every city. In Washington, DC, the share of all arrests that were weapons violations went from 5 percent in January to March 2020, to 7 percent in April and 9 percent in May. The share of arrests for weapons possession went from 1 percent between January and March 2020 in Charleston, South Carolina, to 4 percent between April and December.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mcrSGf">
|
|||
|
|
Almost every city followed the same pattern: a dramatic jump in the share of arrests or stops with a firearm in April and May, a decline in June, and a return to the earlier elevated levels for the remainder of the year.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="ldvou1">
|
|||
|
|
The legitimacy crisis in law enforcement
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kcWoLB">
|
|||
|
|
The implication of this trend is that — assuming police did not suddenly become substantially better at identifying who has an illegal gun — firearm carrying increased at the beginning of the pandemic, well before the protests, and persisted at that level for the remainder of the year.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FyFxCh">
|
|||
|
|
It is possible that in the midst of the pandemic, police started engaging in better-targeted stops that were more likely to yield arrests. But finding other kinds of contraband, like drugs, did not become more frequent, only guns.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NCs4Sx">
|
|||
|
|
Data on <a href="https://informationportal.igchicago.org/investigatory-stop-reports-searches/">investigatory stops</a> — <a href="https://www.theiacp.org/sites/default/files/2020-06/Arrests%20etc.%20June%202020.pdf">defined</a> as stops “based upon reasonable suspicion that the person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime” — in Chicago is instructive and suggests more firearms were found because more were being carried, rather than a change in policing strategy.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y5mwGl">
|
|||
|
|
The share of searches in investigative stops that found drugs just before Covid-19 lockdowns was virtually unchanged after Covid-19, going from 20.9 percent between October 2019 and March 2020 to 20.7 percent between April and September 2020. The demographics of searches did not change much, either, with Black people making up 74.3 percent of people searched in stops from October 2019 to March 2020 and 76.1 percent from April through December. But CPD officers found firearms in 11.5 percent of searches from April to September, compared to 3.7 percent of searches in the six months prior.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YjNzpr">
|
|||
|
|
Since all cities with data had an increase in the share of stops or arrests with a gun at around the same time, no one change in departmental or prosecutorial policy can explain why.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KGEwz3">
|
|||
|
|
Investigative stops and arrests show an increase in firearm carrying beginning in March or April, shortly after <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/nics_firearm_checks_-_month_year.pdf/view">background checks surged to unprecedented levels</a> nationally. More firearms could have contributed to the historic rise in murders in 2020 by turning less dangerous crimes into potentially lethal encounters.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KFrOIQ">
|
|||
|
|
Police finding more firearms in stops and arrests does not fit with the idea that a decrease in proactive police activity targeting firearms was the major driver for 2020’s historic murder totals, though it certainly cannot be ruled out as a contributing factor.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f82wsq">
|
|||
|
|
Johnson put the blame on progressive prosecutors, writing that “making arrests for drug and weapons crimes that will go unprosecuted exposes officers to the risk of disciplinary action, lawsuits and criminal prosecution. To mitigate that risk, police take a more passive approach.” But firearm arrests increased 42 percent in Philadelphia — home of progressive prosecutor Larry Krasner — between April and December 2020, compared to the same time frame in 2019.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V0vU3E">
|
|||
|
|
The data all points to substantially more complex causes behind the rise in murder than the simple narrative of a change in policing as the sole or even main driver. It is plausible, though, that the summer’s drops in stops and arrests, protests against police violence, and increases in gun violence are all symptoms of the same disease: what criminologists David Pyrooz, Justin Nix, and Scott Wolfe recently called a “legitimacy crisis in the criminal justice system,” the result of intensifying distrust in “the law and its gatekeepers” as a result of injustice.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1HqP4g">
|
|||
|
|
Writing in <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2021/02/24/denver-crime-rate-homicide-shooting-property-crime-police/">the Denver Post</a>, they said that a “legitimacy crisis is consequential for three reasons. The first is depolicing, where officers pull back from proactive policing in response to public criticism. Second, depleted trust in the law means citizens will think twice about calling the police to report crimes or suspicious behaviors. Lastly, delegitimacy of the law emboldens criminal offending populations, as the moral obligation to follow the law is weakened.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZZ9cua">
|
|||
|
|
The trend toward more firearms sales and more guns on the street seems to have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/16/upshot/murder-rate-usa.html">continued into 2021</a>. Background checks accelerated even beyond last year’s peak in the first three months of this year. And the latest data from these cities’ stops shows that police are finding as many guns as they did in the second half of 2020.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bPoxr0">
|
|||
|
|
Early figures from many cities show murders have increased from last year’s baseline as well. If the greater availability of firearms contributed to last year’s violence, the latest arrest data suggests it may contribute even more deaths to 2021’s murder total.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qQQrWS">
|
|||
|
|
<em>Rob Arthur is an independent journalist and data scientist based in Chicago. He’s on Twitter at </em><a href="https://twitter.com/No_Little_Plans"><em><span class="citation" data-cites="No_Little_Plans">@No_Little_Plans</span></em></a><em>. Jeff Asher is a crime analyst based in New Orleans and co-founder of AH Datalytics. You can find him on Twitter at </em><a href="https://twitter.com/crimealytics?lang=en"><em><span class="citation" data-cites="Crimealytics">@Crimealytics</span></em></a><em>. </em>
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>How stressed out are factory-farmed animals? AI might have the answer.</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5_35u2oJ_KYnysodCzTAnthEeP8=/206x0:2873x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69443617/AP19129493780151_copy.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Pigs eat from a trough at the Las Vegas Livestock pig farm in 2019. | John Locher/AP
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The promise and perils of using facial recognition technology on animals.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uTeekq">
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2Ih03t">
|
|||
|
|
Facial recognition technology is rapidly becoming ubiquitous, used in everything from security cameras to smartphones. But in the near future, humans may not be the only ones to be digitally captured. Researchers are <a href="https://www.bristolroboticslab.com/centre-for-machine-vision">training forms of artificial intelligence</a> to recognize individual animals by their faces alone — and even discern their emotional state just by reading their expressions.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dylbB2">
|
|||
|
|
Much of the research into animal facial expressions has focused on species like dogs and horses. But some of the most cutting-edge work is aimed at an unlikely subject: the farmed hog.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="COV9Q8">
|
|||
|
|
The typical hog factory farm employs a small number of workers to oversee hundreds, or even thousands, of pigs — too many for the people running the facility to tell which ones might be in distress. Researchers at the Centre for Machine Vision at the University of West England, where pig emotion recognition work is being conducted, envision this technology could be used to help farmworkers more readily identify sickness and injury. If AI can routinely scan the pigs’ faces and alert workers to particularly stressed-out animals, treatment can come sooner and suffering can be reduced.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-float-right">
|
|||
|
|
<div id="IefZr9">
|
|||
|
|
<div>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hjFHLw">
|
|||
|
|
There is even potential for the technology someday advancing to the point of detecting “happiness” in pigs — a holy grail for animal ag.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="woVs3z">
|
|||
|
|
But while the idea of learning more about what animals are feeling is self-evidently enticing — why wouldn’t we want to learn more about them? — some animal welfare advocates question the very premise of this research. While the bulk of the funding is from the UK government, one reason for the skepticism is that the research is partly <a href="https://www.bristolroboticslab.com/centre-for-machine-vision">supported</a> by companies in the meat and agriculture industry, including a pig genetics company that has availed its farms for the study.<strong> </strong>It’s not hard to see that industry’s interest in this work: Keeping more pigs alive under intensive conditions would be a financial boon, as would being able to advertise how “<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/dairylea-bernard-matthews-food-meat-dairy-labels-mislead-shoppers-animal-welfare-farms-a8477636.html">happy</a>” the animals were — something the Centre’s website suggests could be possible.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Trr5PR">
|
|||
|
|
And that all leads to a deeper question: Just how comfortable — let alone happy — can a pig be on a factory farm? In the US, nearly all pigs raised for meat are kept in unnatural, highly mechanized, and crowded conditions, given no access to the outdoors. Conditions are similar in much of the European Union, and <a href="https://clf.jhsph.edu/sites/default/files/2019-01/IFAP-in-low-and-middle-income-countries-a-landscape-assessment.pdf">factory farming is on the rise</a> in low- and middle-income countries as global demand for meat increases. These environments are so difficult to endure that, by some estimates, up to <a href="https://www.cals.iastate.edu/news/releases/iowa-state-university-lead-research-increase-pig-survivability">35 percent of US-raised pigs</a> die before ever reaching the market.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/xkQscqyVzFmK2RheP4ZlZ0bOjBU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22652871/GettyImages_525917582_copy.jpg"/> <cite>Carsten Koall/Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Piglets crowd a stall inside a hog farm in Drahnsdorf, Germany, in 2016.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V9KJ57">
|
|||
|
|
The project of discerning the emotional state of pigs — and the meat industry’s larger push to invent new technology that promises to improve animal welfare — illustrates the fine line between meaningful efforts to reduce animal suffering and so-called “<a href="https://civileats.com/2021/01/19/are-some-animal-welfare-labels-humanewashing/">humane-washing</a>,” where animal welfare is portrayed as being better than it actually is.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ueBLPg">
|
|||
|
|
There is a <a href="https://www.humanesociety.org/farm-animal-welfare">growing body of research</a> that shows what changes farms could make today to reduce the suffering of farmed animals, like eliminating extreme confinement, ending breeding practices that make animals grow too big too fast, and providing outdoor access and enrichments designed to mimic experiences they would normally enjoy if left to their own devices. All of which raises the question: Who is this new technology really for — the pigs, or the humans who raise, slaughter, and eat them?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="sl5lLp">
|
|||
|
|
How to identify stressed-out pigs
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mdkQ6A">
|
|||
|
|
The most cost-effective methods of raising animals tend to cause the most harm. Animals’ bodies become levers on which a balancing act is performed: expending the fewest resources (such as living space) while keeping animals alive and productive. Economic considerations often outweigh welfare, resulting in the inhumane conditions that are a hallmark of intensive animal agriculture.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VwI6UZ">
|
|||
|
|
On the side of animal well-being are researchers like Melvyn Smith, director of the Centre for Machine Vision, for whom improving animal welfare is a big motivator in his quest to use AI to identify stressed-out pigs. “If we could understand how the animal is feeling, if the animal can tell us this itself, then that gives us an opportunity to tailor treatment and care for individual animals,” he told me.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FKo8Nw">
|
|||
|
|
To try to understand how an animal is feeling, he and his colleagues, in partnership with Scotland’s Rural College, are building on past facial recognition research. They have already trained a form of deep-learning AI that is tailored to analyzing images, known as a convolutional neural network (CNN), to distinguish between individual pigs just by analyzing photos of their faces.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4Pht5r">
|
|||
|
|
This new project — aimed at recognizing emotions — adds a layer of nuance to this research by training the CNN to recognize the difference between stressed and unstressed pigs.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
|
|||
|
|
<aside id="KTaNzg">
|
|||
|
|
<q>The most cost-effective methods of raising animals tend to cause the most harm</q>
|
|||
|
|
</aside>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ak1qkR">
|
|||
|
|
Like other deep learning algorithms, the Centre’s CNN learns by being exposed to data sets — in this case, thousands of photographs of pig faces that are likely to be experiencing stress or not. Cameras affixed just above the water spigot where pigs drink allow for close-up and relatively uniform images of each pig every time they take a sip. The CNN then analyzes each photograph, searching for subtle variations in the pigs’ faces around the eyes, the position of the ears, and other features.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rM4Kbi">
|
|||
|
|
To observe whether pigs are stressed, the animals are placed in situations known to be either mildly stressful or preferable. Pigs kept in pens with multiple generations tend to experience stress (particularly true of younger pigs), whereas relatively stress-free environments can be created by giving pigs essentially an all-you-can-eat buffet. Saliva and blood can be measured to determine cortisol levels, a chemical associated with a stress response.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wRpuK2">
|
|||
|
|
With the three-year project about halfway complete, the results so far are impressive: The CNN is able to distinguish between pigs’ stressed and unstressed facial expressions more than 90 percent of the time.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CdsUMa">
|
|||
|
|
By helping AI recognize expressions related to core emotional states in pigs, farmworkers could be alerted to individuals that are experiencing discomfort, allowing for swifter medical attention or alterations to the pigs’ living environment.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xryrSV">
|
|||
|
|
Caring for farmed animals as individuals is becoming increasingly difficult due to intensive animal agriculture operations. On smaller-scale farms, workers are able to spend far more time with individual pigs, getting to know animals’ personalities and watch out for suggestions that they may be unwell. But most pigs live on factory farms, where just a few workers can be <a href="https://www.humanesociety.org/sites/default/files/docs/hsus-report-pig-industry-welfare.pdf">responsible </a>for the care of thousands of animals.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E7InD5">
|
|||
|
|
And factory farms are ramping up around the world: In the US, where factory farming has become <a href="https://sentientmedia.org/u-s-farmed-animals-live-on-factory-farms/#:~:text=A%20global%20analysis%20conducted%20by,hens%2C%20or%20125%2C000%20broiler%20chickens.">the norm</a> for animal agriculture generally, nearly <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/194382/number-of-hogs-slaughtered-in-the-us-since-2000/">130 million pigs</a> were raised and slaughtered in 2019 alone. The UK saw intensive pig farming <a href="https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2017-07-17/megafarms-uk-intensive-farming-meat">increase</a> 26 percent between 2011 and 2017. In China, a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/18/a-12-storey-pig-farm-has-china-found-a-way-to-stop-future-pandemics-">“hog hotel” factory farm</a> consisting of a collection of buildings reaching 12 stories into the sky clocks in as the biggest multi-story hog farm on the planet, with the capacity to house upward of 1,000 pigs per floor.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/r2PfPhx8TXy8J1g2pHpdTbUZCfA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22652880/GettyImages_551116493_copy.jpg"/> <cite>Christian Adam via Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
A sow with her piglets in a farrowing crate in Germany. Factory farms are ramping up around the world.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iKcM5s">
|
|||
|
|
It is no easy task to keep pigs alive within the crowded indoor conditions of factory farms. According to the Iowa Pork Industry Center at Iowa State University, about <a href="https://www.cals.iastate.edu/news/releases/iowa-state-university-lead-research-increase-pig-survivability">one in three</a> pigs die before reaching the market due to factors like <a href="https://www.wageningenacademic.com/doi/10.3920/978-90-8686-803-2_11">stillbirth, sow crushing</a>, <a href="https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/3745e8d1-4a20-4ec8-a25d-e212f26f24e6/downloads/Jordan%20lit%20review%20infectious.pdf?ver=1614622667306">infectious diseases</a>, and <a href="https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/3745e8d1-4a20-4ec8-a25d-e212f26f24e6/downloads/Jordan%20lit%20review%20non-infectious.pdf?ver=1614622667306">poor air quality</a>. Not only does this figure represent massive economic losses for the industry, it also demonstrates the sheer scale of health problems pigs on factory farms must regularly contend with, many of which can <a href="https://www.humanesociety.org/sites/default/files/docs/hsus-report-pig-industry-welfare.pdf">cause </a>chronic physical and psychological pain even when they are not ultimately fatal.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LRwyB2">
|
|||
|
|
Identifying negative emotions like stress could help reduce the suffering of farmed pigs. But the research won’t end there: The next goal is detecting subtler emotions, including happiness.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="znxmoT">
|
|||
|
|
Can animals have a good life on a factory farm?
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Q1VoAV">
|
|||
|
|
Interest in animal facial expressions seems to be growing within the scientific community. Facial coding systems are being developed for species like horses and dogs, where expressions related to <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0131738">pain</a> or <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-55714-6">frustration</a> are being mapped out. Dogs have been observed to make <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/3k3yn9/scientists-say-puppy-dog-eyes-evolutionary-trait-to-make-dogs-cuter">“cute” faces</a> at humans, while <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalgeographic.com%2Fanimals%2Farticle%2Fhappy-rats-facial-expression-animals-emotion&referrer=vox.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2F22528451%2Fpig-farm-animal-welfare-happiness-artificial-intelligence-facial-recognition" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">rats </a>and <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(09)01129-4">chimps </a>are perceived to smile and laugh when they are tickled.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ky4wLz">
|
|||
|
|
But is happiness something that can be measured by facial expression?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j34Xn9">
|
|||
|
|
Smith’s team wants to find out. Once the current study on pig stress is complete, the next stage will be seeing whether the CNN can detect other, more nuanced emotions, perhaps one day giving “farmers and their prospective customers an idea of how happy their pigs are,” as the Centre’s website <a href="https://www.bristolroboticslab.com/centre-for-machine-vision">notes</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2WhWPp">
|
|||
|
|
But technology capable of detecting happiness and more subtle or complex emotions is not without controversy. When it’s applied to human beings, critics <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/25/8929793/emotion-recognition-analysis-ai-machine-learning-facial-expression-review">warn</a> of the inaccuracies arising with a one-to-one mapping of prototypical expressions to emotions. A scowl doesn’t always mean anger; a furrowed brow doesn’t always denote concentration.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GgTXb0">
|
|||
|
|
Further complicating the matter is that happiness is a philosophically elusive concept even when it comes to Homo sapiens, since there remains a lack of consensus over what exactly constitutes happiness. <a href="https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/happiness/definition">Fleeting moments </a>of pleasure, joy, or contentment, along with longer-term experiences of an engaged, <a href="https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/43062/10902_2004_article_1278.pdf?sequence=1">meaningful life</a>, are thought to be among the ingredients associated with states of happiness in people.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aSzkds">
|
|||
|
|
While the constituents of happiness probably look different depending on the species, certain conditions are more likely to guarantee the suppression of happiness regardless of the kind of animal.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bulDYx">
|
|||
|
|
“Pigs can never be happy in factory farms,” says Lori Marino, director of the Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy and an expert in animal behavior who co-authored <a href="http://www.kimmela.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Someone-Project_PIGS_WhitePaper.pdf">a study</a> on pig cognition and emotion. To Marino, “a CAFO [concentrated animal feeding operation] is so far from what a pig needs to thrive that it could not be a place that would make a pig happy or content. They are not designed for pig happiness.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ifbvopvQOxbMYB6we8mxy37qL9o=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22652904/AP20036571850277_copy.jpg"/> <cite>Charlie Neibergall/AP</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Inside a CAFO, or concentrated animal feeding operation, in Lawler, Iowa, in 2018.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wfYv3x">
|
|||
|
|
“I also worry that these companies will only share data that are self-serving and the data will be biased toward convincing people that pigs are happy in CAFOs,” she continued.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0Ivafw">
|
|||
|
|
These concerns may be well-founded. People and businesses that use animals often state that the animals under their control are happy, like the California Milk Advisory Board’s <a href="https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&u=googlescholar&id=GALE%7CA435794914&v=2.1&it=r&sid=AONE&asid=224bfee6">“Happy Cow” campaign</a> or Elon Musk’s “<a href="http://independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/elon-musk-monkey-brain-chip-clubhouse-b1795691.html">totally happy</a>” lab monkey.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="89BeC6">
|
|||
|
|
Such claims of animal happiness can be dubious given the mounting science revealing the extent to which animals can be harmed in captivity. One of Marino’s other studies looks at how captivity can <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-neural-cruelty-of-captivity-keeping-large-mammals-in-zoos-and-aquariums-damages-their-brains-142240">cause</a> brain damage in some animals, impairing cognitive functions such as memory and decision-making.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DA4yEm">
|
|||
|
|
Other researchers conducted a <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/03/how-horse-feeling-new-mobile-brain-wave-reader-could-tell?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=8f8c011b27-briefing-dy-20210310&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-8f8c011b27-43905957">study</a> that found horses that were confined within stalls emitted brain waves associated with states like depression and anxiety, whereas horses allowed to roam in herds on pastures showed brain waves associated with feelings of calm. Pregnant pigs kept in gestation crates, cages that are barely bigger than their bodies, are known to become <a href="https://www.humanesociety.org/sites/default/files/docs/hsus-report-pig-industry-welfare.pdf">unresponsive </a>over time — behavior that has been linked to depression. Much is already known about the emotional state of animals in captivity without state-of-the-art tech telling us.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<aside id="GUhoPm">
|
|||
|
|
<div>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</aside>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8k9emh">
|
|||
|
|
Smith’s inquiry into whether pigs are happy on farms may find they’re not, but that doesn’t deter him. He says he is interested in switching the longstanding emphasis within the animal research community from detecting simply an absence of negative emotions to detecting positive emotions, and that this might lead to a better understanding of what contributes to higher quality of life and happiness for pigs.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3XOUQV">
|
|||
|
|
But given that the current project is partly supported by industry stakeholders, including the farming technology company AgSense (owned by Valmont Industries), JSR Genetics Ltd. (a pig breeding company), and Garth Pig Practice (a veterinary consulting service), skepticism about the uses of this technology is in order. (AgSense, Valmont Industries, and Garth Pig Practice did not respond to requests for comments for this article.)
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="enKrcw">
|
|||
|
|
Moving the needle on animal welfare
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AJU8sy">
|
|||
|
|
The intensive animal agriculture industry is facing increasing scrutiny of operations that not only harm animals but give rise to a litany of damaging consequences, from perpetuating <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/9/16/21430837/future-perfect-podcast-season-3-north-carolina-cafo-pig-farm">environmental racism</a> — especially in North Carolina, where hog farms disproportionately pollute predominantly Black communities — to accelerating <a href="https://thecounter.org/meat-dairy-greenhouse-gas-emissions/">climate change</a>. Demands to abolish factory farming altogether are <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/7/8/21311327/farmers-factory-farms-cafos-animal-rights-booker-warren-khanna">growing louder</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="95Lhph">
|
|||
|
|
Still, improvements in farmed animal welfare are worthwhile since it’s unlikely factory farming is going away anytime soon. Once implemented, the Centre’s CNN may quantifiably improve the welfare of pigs on factory farms, even if incrementally.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Eqi5AB">
|
|||
|
|
But while there’s still much to learn about animal welfare, there’s even more that we already know. If the pork sector were concerned with animal thriving, practices known to cause chronic stress — such as gestation crates — would already be eradicated.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/V60bMOyDlKAhKGY7oON-jC4XEiM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22652943/GettyImages_1134235617_copy.jpg"/> <cite>Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Greenpeace activists call on European Parliament members to vote against livestock factory farms in Brussels in 2019.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0esqoX">
|
|||
|
|
There exists abundant evidence of the pain male piglets <a href="https://www.avma.org/sites/default/files/resources/swine_castration_bgnd.pdf">endure </a>when they are castrated without anesthesia, yet these mutilations continue to be widespread.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5iMPVO">
|
|||
|
|
Confining pigs indoors within crowded, barren pens on concrete flooring can lead to abnormal biting behaviors that can devolve into cannibalism — something that can be <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0168159196010313">addressed</a> by giving pigs additional space and covering floors with natural materials like peat or compost.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LPMooH">
|
|||
|
|
AI technology may one day yield deeper insights into farmed animals’ emotional states. And there’s some genuine value in research diving into what animals are feeling. The question that looms over the use of such tech in a factory farming context is whether we already know enough anyway.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SoGVAy">
|
|||
|
|
<em>Laura Bridgeman is an award-winning writer interested in gender, food systems, and justice. Her essay on Western dominator identity is featured in </em><a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781351068840-5/western-dominator-ecocultural-identity-denial-animal-autonomy-laura-bridgeman?context=ubx&refId=12342fbd-7264-4ba7-828d-ddd504f759f3">The Routledge Handbook of Ecocultural Identity (2020</a>)<em>. Find her on Twitter </em><a href="https://twitter.com/laura_bridgeman?lang=en"><em><span class="citation" data-cites="laura_bridgeman">@laura_bridgeman</span></em></a><em>.</em>
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>The Trump administration forced Apple to turn over lawmakers’ data. Democrats are outraged.</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="Representative Adam Schiff sits next to a gavel." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/3z8VUaSSIfzYnhB3zWP4IgU0aqo=/382x0:5561x3884/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69442124/GettyImages_1232323507.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Device metadata from Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, was obtained by the Department of Justice. | Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Some say it’s an attack on the separation of powers.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4iy2pE">
|
|||
|
|
Democratic lawmakers are calling for an investigation into the Trump administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) and its use of subpoenas to obtain device metadata belonging to at least two members of Congress. They say it’s a disturbing attack on the separation of powers, the principle of keeping the operations of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches generally separate from one another.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="exsuIV">
|
|||
|
|
The calls for oversight follow a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/10/us/politics/justice-department-leaks-trump-administration.html">New York Times report</a> revealing that the DOJ made Apple turn over records from several people associated with the House Intelligence Committee — including Rep. Adam Schiff, Rep. Eric Swalwell, their staff and family, one of whom was a minor — in the midst of an investigation into people leaking classified information. While the seizure of this data happened back in 2017 and 2018, a DOJ gag order kept Apple from informing the representatives until just last month when they received an email notification from the company. Now, members are <a href="https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1403417754544316420">reportedly racing</a> to gather more details from Apple about the scope of the DOJ subpoena.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VFL7n5">
|
|||
|
|
That the Department of Justice sought the private phone data of US lawmakers without their knowledge is remarkable and disturbing. While details are still emerging, the exchange sets a concerning precedent about the ability of the executive branch to obtain the digital records of lawmakers as well as tech companies’ roles in complying with such orders. Attention has now turned to both Apple and the DOJ, and it has raised concerns over how each approaches controversial government demands for sensitive data.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5vGtfv">
|
|||
|
|
It’s unclear what data Apple actually handed over. Apple did not respond to Recode’s request for comment.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZMOHdD">
|
|||
|
|
Still, Democrats are outraged, calling the seizure of this data “<a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=separation%20powers&src=typed_query">an assault</a>” on the separation of powers. They say the subpoenas constituted dangerously broad government surveillance deployed in service of the political interests of then-President Donald Trump.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9rCrDD">
|
|||
|
|
“President Trump repeatedly and flagrantly demanded that the Department of Justice carry out his political will and tried to use the Department as a cudgel against his political opponents and members of the media,” Rep. Schiff told Recode in a statement. “It is increasingly apparent that those demands did not fall on deaf ears.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<aside id="QlaMcf">
|
|||
|
|
<div>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</aside>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VeARLX">
|
|||
|
|
The DOJ’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/06/11/trump-doj-secretly-seized-phone-data-reps-schiff-swalwell/7651271002/">announced</a> on Friday that he will start a review of the agency’s actions under the Trump administration and will look at “whether any such uses, or the investigations, were based upon improper considerations.” Sen. Ron Wyden <a href="https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1403357383997407232">has also promised</a> to introduce legislation aimed at “reform[ing] the abuse of gag orders” and increasing transparency into government surveillance.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k4ttoI">
|
|||
|
|
Companies like Apple frequently hand over user data when government agencies demand. Here’s how Recode’s Sara Morrison explained it <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/2/24/21133600/police-fbi-phone-search-protests-password-rights">last year</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<blockquote>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4x1HXF">
|
|||
|
|
Depending on what law enforcement is looking for, it may not need physical possession of your device at all. A lot of information on your phone is also stored elsewhere. For example, if you back up your iPhone to Apple’s iCloud, the government can get it from Apple. If it needs to see whose DMs you slid into, law enforcement can contact Twitter. As long as they go through the proper and established legal channels to get it, police can get their hands on pretty much anything you’ve stored outside of your device.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R72HY1">
|
|||
|
|
You do have some rights here. The Fourth Amendment protects you from illegal search and seizure, and a <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/part-I/chapter-121">provision</a> of the <a href="https://it.ojp.gov/PrivacyLiberty/authorities/statutes/1285">Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986</a> (ECPA) dictates what law enforcement must obtain in order to get the information. It might be a subpoena, court order, or warrant, depending on what it’s looking for. (WhatsApp actually does a good job of explaining this <a href="https://faq.whatsapp.com/en/general/26000050">in its FAQ</a>.) A section of the ECPA, known as the Stored Communications Act, says that service providers must have those orders before they can give the requested information to law enforcement.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BsUiqJ">
|
|||
|
|
But, assuming the government has the right paperwork, your information is very obtainable.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="J2x6kH">
|
|||
|
|
On Apple’s US-focused <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.apple.com%2Flegal%2Ftransparency%2Fus.html&referrer=vox.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Frecode%2F2021%2F6%2F11%2F22530070%2Ftrump-doj-apple-data-schiff" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">transparency website</a>, the company says it can receive government requests related to a person’s device identifier, financial identifiers, customer data related to account information, and customer data requested in the midst of an emergency. In the case of the DOJ’s investigation into leaks, Apple <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/10/us/politics/justice-department-leaks-trump-administration.html">turned over metadata and account information</a>, according to the Times.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sPyv5i">
|
|||
|
|
“These demands for lawmakers’ private data are especially disturbing because they threaten the separation of powers. But the problem is far bigger,” ACLU senior attorney Patrick Toomey told Recode in an email. “The government seizes the sensitive information of vast numbers of people each year, often without any notice to the people affected.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BgrSPv">
|
|||
|
|
Tech companies do have some power when they receive these kinds of requests. They can try to reject a government request as being invalid, though they often don’t. Apple says that between January and June 2020, the company provided data 82 percent of the time when a government agency requested identifying information about a particular device. Tech companies can also try to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/google-says-it-fought-gag-orders-in-wikileaks-investigation/2015/01/28/e62bfd04-a5c9-11e4-a06b-9df2002b86a0_story.html">fight a gag order</a>. In this case, a gag order seemed to remain in place.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="c4Sqa0">
|
|||
|
|
This is concerning. At the same time, the seizure of this kind of data is a dark reminder that companies like Apple continue to hold onto vast amounts of user data, and that they can be legally obligated to hand it over to the government without a user ever knowing.
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>India’s white-ball squad to have 14-day quarantine in Mumbai, match simulation ahead of Sri Lanka games</strong> - Players will undergo six RT-PCR tests on alternate days before flying off to Colombo</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Michael Holding criticises England team’s ‘moment of unity’ gesture, likens it to saying ‘all lives matter’</strong> - England players wore T-shirts sporting messages against any racism, religious intolerance, sexism and other anti-discrimination slogans, having decided to not take the knee after the series against West Indies last year</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Brazil women’s soccer team protests harassment amid probe</strong> - Brazil players including superstar Marta on Friday used their social media channels to protest, but didn’t name Caboclo, who is not expected to return to his position after the 30-day suspension.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>De Kock’s 141 puts South Africa on top against West Indies</strong> - After being dismissed for 97 on the first day, the West Indies slumped to 51-4 as it began its second innings 225 runs behind South Africa.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ngidi’s five-for adds to West Indies’ woes</strong> - South Africa calls the shots in first Test</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SAD-BSP alliance a new political & social initiative: Mayawati</strong> - SAD stalwart Parkash Singh Badal described the formation of the SAD-BSP alliance as “the beginning of a secular, federal democratic revolution in the State.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Telangana government again raises demand for hike in FRBM limit</strong> - State suffers ₹4,100 crore revenue loss in May itself, Harish Rao says at GST Council meet</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Congress to take out a march against rising fuel prices on Monday</strong> - The Dakshina Kannada District Congress Committee members and other Congress activists will take out a march in the city on Monday to urge the Central</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Firms to get notices for not paying rentals to Govt. Flying Training School</strong> - Minister asks officials to take legal action, warns against laxity</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Punjab Finance Minister slams continued GST on COVID related material</strong> - Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal on Saturday said the GST’s Group of Ministers (GoM) should stop acting like a shahenshah (emperor) of yes</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>G7: Leaders to unveil global anti-pandemic action plan</strong> - They will pledge all their resources to ensure a global pandemic like Covid-19 is never repeated.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>England considers four-week delay to lockdown end</strong> - It comes amid concern over rising cases and the transmissibility of the Delta variant in England.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>French Open 2021: Novak Djokovic beats Rafael Nadal & faces Stefanos Tsitsipas in final</strong> - Novak Djokovic ends Rafael Nadal’s reign at the French Open in a classic semi-final which will be ranked among the all-time great matches.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Turkey 0-3 Italy: The Azzurri start Euro 2020 with impressive win over Turkey</strong> - Euro 2020 opens in spectacular fashion as Italy get their campaign off to a flying start in front of their own fans against Turkey.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Plastic pollution: take-out food is littering the oceans</strong> - Single-use plastic from take-out food is a big source of pollution in oceans and rivers, scientists say.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How to protect species and save the planet—at the same time</strong> - A major new report suggests tackling biodiversity, climate crises simultaneously. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1772553">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Three experts resign as FDA advisors over approval of Alzheimer’s drug</strong> - One former advisor accused the FDA of presenting “slanted” questions to committee. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1772629">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>NY can’t force ISPs to offer $15 low-income broadband plans, judge rules</strong> - $15 requirement is rate regulation and preempted by federal law, ruling says. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1772604">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>CD Projekt Red does an about-face, says ransomware crooks are leaking data</strong> - Data taken in breach disclosed in February likely related to employees and contractors. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1772586">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>MySQL 101: Installation, care, and feeding on Ubuntu</strong> - If you’ve got 15 minutes, we can show you the ropes of basic MySQL management. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1772445">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>A Computer Science student at MIT showed up at his buddies dorm room with a new bike. His buddy said “sweet bike, where’d ya get it?”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“You’ll never believe this,” he said, “I was walking across campus and this beautiful blonde on a bike stopped, threw down her bike, tore off all her clothes and said <em>take whatever you want!</em>”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
His buddy stared at him blankly for a minute, then said “smart. Her clothes would have never fit you.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/YZXFILE"> /u/YZXFILE </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nxurkr/a_computer_science_student_at_mit_showed_up_at/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nxurkr/a_computer_science_student_at_mit_showed_up_at/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>A boy starts his first day at Walmart.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
His trainer says to him “I’ll take care of the first 2 customers to show you how it’s done and you can look after the 3rd.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
So the trainer goes to the first customer and says “Can I help you, m’am?” Lady goes “I’m looking for some garden hose.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Trainer “Okay 10, 20 or 30 ft?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Lady “30ft.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
He takes her to where the hoses are and says “After, can I interest you in a lawn mower?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Why would I need a lawn mower?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Well you’re going to water your grass, the grass is going to grow and you’re going to need to cut it. You’ll need a lawnmower for that.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Actually yeah, I do need a lawnmower.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The boy is pretty impressed that his trainer was able to sell this lady a lawnmower. So the trainer goes to the second customer and says “Can I help you, sir?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The man says “Yeah, I’m looking for some fertilizer.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Sure. 10, 20 or 30 pounds?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“20”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
So the trainer takes the man to where the fertilizer is and says “When you’re done can I interest you in a new lawnmower?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Why would I need a lawnmower?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Well you’re going to fertilize your grass, the grass is going to grow and you’re going to need to cut it. You’re going to need a lawnmower.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Yeah, actually, I do need a lawnmower”.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The boy at this point is amazed by his trainer’s salesmanship.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
So now it’s the boys turn to help a customer. He goes up to this lady and asks “Is there something I can help you with today?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“I’m looking for some tampons.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Sure, 10, 20 or 30 pack?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“30 pack”.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
So the boy takes the lady to where the tampons are and says “When you’re done can I interest you in a lawnmower?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The lady looks at him confused as says “What on earth would I need a lawnmower for?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Well, your weekend’s fucked, might as well cut the grass.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/nothinlefttochoose"> /u/nothinlefttochoose </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nxit3h/a_boy_starts_his_first_day_at_walmart/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nxit3h/a_boy_starts_his_first_day_at_walmart/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>While in China, an American man is sexually promiscuous and does not use a condom the entire time he is there.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
A week after arriving back home in the States, he wakes one morning to find his penis covered with bright green and purple spots. Horrified, he immediately goes to see a doctor.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The doctor, never having seen anything like this before, orders some tests and tells the man to return in two days for the results. After two days, the doctor tells him, “I’ve got bad news for you, you have contracted Mongolian VD. It’s very rare and almost unheard of here in the US. We know very little about it.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The man perplexed asks, “Well, can’t you give me a shot or something to fix me up, Doc?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The doctor answers, “I’m sorry, there’s no known cure. We are going to have to amputate your penis.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The man screams in horror, “Absolutely not !! I want a second opinion… !!!”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The doctor replies, “Well, it’s your choice. Go ahead, if you want, but surgery is your only option.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The next day, the man seeks out a Chinese doctor, figuring that he’ll know more about the disease. The Chinese doctor examines his penis and proclaims, “Ahh… yes, Mongolian VD. Very rare disease.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The guy says to the doctor, “Yeah, yeah, I already know that, but what can we do? My American doctor wants to cut off my penis!”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The Chinese doctor shakes his head and laughs, “Stupid Amelican docttah, always want operate, make more money that way. No need amputate!”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Oh, thank God!” the man exclaims.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Yes,” says the Chinese doctor. “Wait two weeks. Fall off by itself.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Genius_Mate"> /u/Genius_Mate </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nxehwd/while_in_china_an_american_man_is_sexually/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nxehwd/while_in_china_an_american_man_is_sexually/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>I was horrified when my wife told me that my six-year-old son wasn’t actually mine.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Apparently I need to pay more attention during school pick-up.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/nikan69"> /u/nikan69 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nxvqnu/i_was_horrified_when_my_wife_told_me_that_my/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nxvqnu/i_was_horrified_when_my_wife_told_me_that_my/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>Ever since my girlfriend got pregnant, everything in my life has changed.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
My phone number, my address, my name. Everything.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/-Tigger"> /u/-Tigger </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ny3kz9/ever_since_my_girlfriend_got_pregnant_everything/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ny3kz9/ever_since_my_girlfriend_got_pregnant_everything/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
<script>AOS.init();</script></body></html>
|